Escaped buffalo gores woman

Friday

Aug 22, 2008 at 12:01 AM

RAIL ROAD FLAT - A Rail Road Flat woman who was gored by a buffalo was in a Modesto hospital Thursday, fighting infections in her legs and awaiting word on whether she will need skin grafts to recover.

Dana M. Nichols

RAIL ROAD FLAT - A Rail Road Flat woman who was gored by a buffalo was in a Modesto hospital Thursday, fighting infections in her legs and awaiting word on whether she will need skin grafts to recover.

"My legs are mutilated," said Tracy Whalen, 38.

The buffalo belongs to Dale Buller, a millionaire gun collector and buffalo rancher who owns most of the acreage in central Rail Road Flat.

Whalen, who lives in a house across Mountain Ranch Road from the buffalo pasture, said at about 6:30 p.m. Sunday, she saw a buffalo in her yard. It was the third time in the past week that one had escaped and crossed onto her property. She said she attempted to lure it away from her yard by throwing fruit from her apple tree - normally an attractive treat to a buffalo - toward the street.

"He just turned on me and that is really all I remember," Whalen said.

Whalen and sheriff's investigators say that Whalen's 12-year-old daughter, Tiffany, witnessed what happened next: The buffalo threw Whalen into the air and then gored her legs with its horns before fleeing back to its pasture. It was then that the girl solved the mystery of how the animal had gotten out repeatedly.

"The buffalo jumped the fence, back into its pasture," Tracy Whalen said of the account her daughter gave.

Tracy Whalen said the next thing she remembers, she was on the side of Rail Road Flat Road waiting to be loaded into a helicopter.

Buller did not respond to telephone messages left asking his account of the incident. A staffer in the law office of Ken Foley, the attorney who is defending Buller in a weapons-dealing case, said that the office was not yet aware of the buffalo-goring incident.

Whalen said she has hired an attorney to seek compensation for her injuries.

Whalen's mother, Luella Thompson, said her daughter has approximately 200 staples in her left leg, which is more seriously injured, and between 50 and 100 staples in her right leg.

Buller, 79, has had frequent run-ins with law enforcement in the past year over everything from conflicts with county code enforcers to a collection of 609 guns authorities seized at his home in January. Buller faces trial in October on nine weapons charges, including charges that he possessed a machine gun and illegal assault weapons.

Whalen said during earlier buffalo escape incidents, Buller had thanked her profusely for not calling authorities.

Sgt. Laurie Murray, who heads Animal Services for the Calaveras County Sheriff's Department, said the buffalo escaped again Monday morning and disrupted operations at the town's elementary school.

Murray said her investigators are preparing a case against Buller for violating the county's animal-control ordinance.

Tracy Whalen said she hopes Buller improves the fence that is supposed to keep the buffalo in its pasture.